Santos Medrano moves from table to table shaking hands with his customers, thanking them for coming. Medrano is quiet and unassuming but talks enthusiastically about the improvements he’s made to the menu, in the kitchen. The word he most often uses is “quality.”
“Every day, day-by-day, you work to get it better and better, trying to keep this place nice and clean, make sure that people got the quality, got the service, make people excited when they come and eat,” Medrano said.
Medrano’s relish for his job almost certainly has to do with how he got there. He grew up in poverty in El Salvador and came to America by himself at the age of 12 to earn money to send back to his sick mother. He started as a busboy at Pizzeria Uno in Bethesda and later became a cook and then a waiter. Working 80-90 hours a week, he waited tables at Uno, Bethesda’s Pines of Rome, and finally at Umberto’s restaurant in the Cabin John Shopping Center from 1997-2004.
In November, he took over as owner of Umberto’s, using money he had made restoring houses to buy the business from former owner Joe Pinataro, who wanted to return to his career as a builder.
Medrano learned English from interacting with customers.
“We didn’t have another choice,” Medrano said of emigration. “My family is very poor. Very poor people. I mean, my mama was sick and we don’t have money to support her. In my country, it’s very difficult. You’ve got somebody sick everything has to be cash. You don’t have money, you’re in trouble.”
Medrano still supports his family in El Salvador and announces proudly that his younger sister is in college there.
Medrano now has his own family, too. His wife Dionicia is in school and his sons Jason and Mason are 5 years and 17 months old. Jason is a kindergartner at Highland Elementary in Silver Spring.
“I want to see my children in college,” Medrano said of his boys, who are U.S. citizens.
That goal doesn’t seem at all out of reach, least of all to someone as invested in the American Dream as Medrano.
“Everything is possible to do. Like in this country, everybody’s got the opportunity. I mean, if you’re working hard, you’re not going to get everything at one time but if you go little by little you can do it,” he said. “I mean this country is the best country in the world. And everybody got the opportunity.”
MEDRANO’S CUSTOMERS not only like him but also admire him.
“This young man would often wait on us and he was always really pleasant. We always liked him. So we were real pleased when we found out that he took over,” said Potomac resident Brenda Foote, eating lunch with her husband Rick. The Footes have been coming to Umberto’s several times a month for eight years. “He’s always worked hard. You work for things and you achieve them. That’s what America’s about.”
“He’s a very friendly nice, hard working, honest, conscientious young man,” said Jerry Wolman, another Potomac resident and longtime customer.
Though Medrano can’t claim credit for having lured customers who have been coming for years, he says he has doubled the restaurant’s business in the three and half months since he took over. It had dwindled in the latter part of Pinataro’s tenure.
And customers have noticed the difference.
“I think the quality of food has improved, the service is excellent, and I feel at home when I go in there,” Wolman said. “It’s a nice atmosphere. It’s more homey than stuffy, and the food is like the old Italian ladies used to cook, which I like. … He’s improved it all the way around.”
Said Foote, “He treats everyone like they’re friends. Like they really appreciate everyone coming in.”
Medrano, who has lived in Montgomery County continuously since he came to the U.S. said he has no plans to leave.
“I’m very happy, very happy,” he said. “I used to like waiting tables, talking with everybody. And that’s what we’re doing every night here. … I’m really, really very, very happy with everybody.”